Trump’s Iran Ultimatum started a 60-day clock that tapped for decisive June attacks, reveals bomber commander

When President Donald Trump pulled a red line over the nuclear program of Iran, American bombers immediately started to prepare themselves to force it, according to the general who ordered the June strike mission.

And, General Jason Armagost told Fox News Digital, the operation turned out to be decisive: “We have restored the deterrence and all our opponents looked at that.”

In the spring, Trump wrote a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and demanded “progress” in nuclear conversations and offering a 60 -day deadline.

When he heard that Trump gave the two -month ultimatum, Armagost, commander of the 8th Air Force and all bomber troops, a plan immediately started to initiate the president of strike options.

Pentagon bends the Lokvogels and strategic deception of the American army that surprises Iran and the world.

White House Envoy Steve Witkoff met Iranian representatives in Oman, but the negotiations reportedly stuck on the Iranian demands for what they called a civilian nuclear enrichment capacity.

“Two months ago I gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum to” close a deal. “They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there. Trump wrote after the strikes.

“When I heard that [60-day warning]Immediately in my head I said, okay, we have 60 days … We knew that we would be a military option at the end of that, “Armagost said.

Mission planning was “much more extensive” than the single round of strikes that B2 Bomber Benmanningen ultimately performed.

“We are building the willingness to be ready to do countless options that might support a campaign, right? This was a strategic attack, but we look all the time, okay, what is the next that should happen? Or can us be asked?”

Fortunately, the Iranian nuclear locations were in remote areas, so planners did not have to take the civil victims into account. But still, they started planning every detail, who would be in the facilities at the time of impact.

“When I heard that [60-day warning]Immediately in my head I said, okay, we have 60 days … We knew that we would be a military option at the end of that, “said General Jason Armagost, commander of the 8th Air Force. (Air Force)

Subsequently, 14 B-2 pilots who fly seven Stealth bombers were prepared for the 30-hour journey of Whiteman, Mo. To Iran and back. They dropped 14 solid ordnance penetrators (MOPs) in the nuclear places of Iran deep underground.

“Worldwide operations are difficult,” said Armagost. “You go through other weather, you go through daylight cycles who are abnormal because you fly to the east and then to the west … intellectually, it is demanding.”

Aerial tanking tankers made the marathon mission possible. Clouds, weather changes and even the failure of a single tank jet could have endangered the strike, Armagost said. But careful planning and backup tracks kept the B-2s in the air.

“That is really what makes us a super power,” he said. “The bomber troops of Russia and China are regional, not worldwide.”

The general said that the public should not measure success due to the precision of the strike, but by the deterrent effect it has produced.

A complete breakdown of Operation Midnight Hammer, the ‘largest B-2 operational attack in American history’

“About 30 hours after the attack there was a cease -the fire,” said Armagost. “It is clear that the Iranians saw that, and saw the path have changed dramatically forward. All our opponents look at it, and they will make different choices.”

Shot of Mop/Bunker Buster Bomb on Whiteman Air Force Base, the same bomb used in Iran. (Morgan Phillips/Fox News Digital)

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned after the strikes: “Americans should expect more damage and succeed than ever before.” The regime became an American airbase in Qatar, al-ordeid, but damage was minimal and nobody was injured.

Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire -fires days later on June 24.

Armagost also recognized the pressure on the American bomber power. At the height of the Cold War, the US had around 770 long -distance bombers over 36 wings. Nowadays that number has fallen in total to around 140 bombers.

Now the Air Force is looking at the B-21, the next generation of Stealth Bommer and successor to the B-2. That aircraft is expected to be updated more easily with new technologies and costs less than half the price: around $ 800 million instead of $ 2 billion.

The Air Force is planning to acquire around 100 B-21s, although discussions are underway if the service branch may need more.

Trump said that the United States completed a “very successful” strike against Iranian nuclear locations in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, and said that the nuclear enrichment installations of Iran are “erased”. (Fox News)

“It’s a discussion at national level,” said Armagost. “We have to decide as a country or with our partners and allies, what kind of capacity we need to project Force all over the world that are confronted with several or more opponents, who will in some cases, coordinate and work together to disturb us.”

Armagost compared the Operation Midnight Hammer with another historical mission of the 509th bomber wing, which dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago, killing 200,000 and ended a World War.

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“There is about six weeks a difference,” Armagost said. “Both were strategic attacks that changed history.”

“Nobody wants to see Iran with nuclear weapons. This was about repairing deterrence against a regime that everyone knows that it destabilizes with that ability.”